Neuropsychology Research Day

 

The 15th Annual Neuropsychology Research Day will be held on Friday, February 23, from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm in Room 230 of the Rosenthal Library. The keynote address, “Oligodendrocytes as Environmental Sensors,” will be given by Dr. Patrizia Casaccia (Director of the Neuroscience Initiative, Advanced Science Research Center, CUNY; Professor of Neuroscience, Genetics, and Genomic Sciences, Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mt. Sinai).

Neuropsychology Research Day is a CUNY-wide conference for students and faculty who wish to present their latest research in neuroscience and neuropsychology. Fifteen-minute talks are presented throughout the day, so visitors can come and go as they please. The conference is free and open to the public; no registration necessary. Undergraduates and master’s students interested in research on campus, graduate school opportunities, and career paths in neuroscience and neuropsychology are strongly encouraged to attend. To see the full program click here . For more information contact Carolyn Pytte:  Carolyn.pytte@qc.cuny.edu ​.

Study Abroad this Summer

 

A month remains for students from Queens College and other CUNY campuses to take advantage of the wonderful opportunities for international experiential learning offered by the Queens College Summer Education Abroad program.

 

Students can travel to France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Nicaragua, South Korea, Spain, and Sri Lanka. Courses run the gamut from business, history, literature, and service learning to a variety of languages. Each program lasts three to six weeks and will earn a student anywhere from three to six academic credits. Financial aid may be applied toward costs and scholarships, and grants are available.

 

Some 400 students participate annually in this very popular program, according to Education Abroad Director Mohamed Tabrani, with about 50 percent coming from QC.

The deadline to apply is Monday, March 26. For an application and all program information, click here .

The summer programs will be discussed in greater detail at the Study Abroad Fair on Wednesday, February 28, from 12 to 3 pm at the James Muyskens Conference Room at Summit Apartments. Lunch and refreshments will be served.

Call for Mentors for H.S. Students

 

The New York State Office of Children and Family Services has put out a call for mentors for the New York State Mentoring Program@Flushing High School. This unique program creates supportive mentor relationships for students who are at risk of dropping out of school. It takes place in a school-based setting, one-to-one between the mentor and mentee with a school coordinator present. Participants who are trained as mentors can make a big difference in the lives of at-risk students. At-risk children who have mentors show better attendance and greater participation in school, and have higher graduation and college admission rates. For more information and an application, click here .

Book Launch for Latinos in New York

On Wednesday, February 28, there will be a book launch and discussion of Latinos in New York: Communities in Transition (University of Notre Dame Press) . The event, which begins at 12:15 pm, takes place in the Dining Hall, Q-Side. It is sponsored by a partnership between QC’s Latin American and Latino Studies Program, the Iberian and Latin American Faculty Group, and the National Institute for Latino Policy (NILP). Lunch will be served at noon. Participants will include NILP Director Angelo Falcón, who is coeditor of Latinos in New York; Sherrie Baver (Political Science), City College and the CUNY Graduate Center; Rosalía Reyes (Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures), City College; and QC’s William Orchard (English).

Cornerstone Theater Comes to Campus This Summer

President Félix V. Matos Rodríguez (r.) and Drama, Theatre & Dance Chair Megan Healey (l.) recently met with Michael John Garcés, the artistic director of LA’s critically acclaimed Cornerstone Theater Company, which specializes in producing community-based theatre. This summer for the first time, Cornerstone will hold its summer institute outside California and will be on the QC campus between July 12 and August 12. During that time they will write, produce, and perform a play connected to the history and daily life of Queens.  Click here  for more information about Cornerstone and its summer program.

Two QC Stars Celebrated

Each year Schneps Communications’ “Stars Under 40” Awards and Networking Event honors young stars in business, education, and community service. At the most recent celebration on February 13, two of the stars came from the QC constellation: Nelson Nigel ’01 and Jennifer Fernandez. Nigel is the founder and CEO of Kidmoto Technologies, which specializes in providing safe airport transportation for children; currently he is working at the QC Tech Incubator on ways to market Kidmoto. Fernandez, the administrative director for New Immigrant Community Empowerment (NICE), is a graduating senior who is studying economics and textiles and apparels at QC, where she is deputy chair of the Academic Senate. She also received a special Diversity Award at the ceremony.

Photos courtesy of Schneps Communications

Jason Sand: A Life that Reflects a “Passion for Inclusion”

Jason Sand always assumed he would attend a CUNY college like both his parents and follow in his mother’s footsteps to become a public high school English teacher.

           

Things didn’t work out exactly that way. An honors grad of Cardozo High School, Sand enrolled at QC--“a foregone conclusion in my family,” he says--but “didn’t have the maturity then” and dropped out to work as a Honda automotive technician for several years.

           

But Sand knew he wanted more from life. So he took a job as a paraprofessional with the NYC Department of Education (D.O.E.). “I got connected with a new pilot program in Queens called Inclusion,” he says, explaining that this approach supports individuals with special needs in a general education setting, where they learn alongside their nondisabled peers.

           

“My passion has always been inclusion,” says Sand, an assistant principal who has had a career of 27 years and counting with D.O.E. Special Education. “I feel that with the right supports we can teach each student to be as independent as possible and ensure they have access to their communities.”

Click here to read more.

Paul Klapper Hall

Paul Klapper Hall, completed in 1955, first served as the college’s library. Subsequently renovated and repurposed, it pays respect to QC’s founding president, Paul Klapper, who recruited the college’s first faculty members and selected its first class of students. It is now the home of the English and Art Departments and the Godwin-Ternbach Museum.

Paul Klapper and the building named after him.

Summer Session is Coming

They may still be forecasting snow, but it’s not too early to consider summer study at QC. Registration is now open. Students can earn up to 15 credits and get a jump on completing their degree, or on meeting the requirements for the Excelsior Scholarship or on advancing in QC in 4--and still have time left over for a long vacation. Summer Session features:

 

 

For information on schedules, courses, and tuition and to apply, visit www.qc.cuny.edu/Summer . If you have questions, contact Academic Advising at 718-997-5599.

During winter break, three QC students served internships at tech companies thanks to Wintership , a collaboration between Cornell Tech and the City University of New York that is devoted to helping more women get their feet in the door at tech companies. Claudia Bandali interned at LinkedIn, Karina Ibragimova at Oppenheimer Funds, and Bella Rubin at Blackstone . . . A 1997 graduate of the college’s Center for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies,  Nikos Christodoulides  has been appointed Cyprus’s new Minister of Foreign Affairs. He had been the keynote speaker as well as Alumnus of the Year during the center’s 40th anniversary graduation in 2014 . . . An op-ed by Amy Hsin (Sociology) and Francesc Ortega (Economics) entitled “How the DREAM Act Can Actually Lower the Deficit” recently appeared in The Hill . The piece challenges the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates of the bill’s effect on the deficit . . . S tate Senator José Peralta  ’96 and the Corona-East Elmhurst branch of the NAACP recently hosted the African-American History and Heritage celebration at the Langston Hughes Community Library and Cultural Center, honoring the achievements of several key community leaders and activists. Among the honorees was Deirdre Cooper Owens (History), who received the Lifetime Achievement Award . . . A review by John Tytell (English) of The Dawn Watch: Joseph Conrad in a Global World appeared in the February 11 issue of the Los Angeles Review of Books . . . Computer Science student Margarita Zias has received a Travel Scholarship to the 2018 Software Engineering Assembly Conference presented by the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, CO, this April.